On our second day in Santorini we enjoyed the pools and the beach. Our rental car was delivered to the hotel and we decided to drive across the island to visit the town of Oia. The drive was spectacular as we drove across the mountains.
Oia is located at the very northern tip of Santorini and it is really, really beautiful. The view is breathtaking and there are so many interesting artisan shops. We spent our time just strolling through the town, and we did stop to have a drink and some snacks. We decided to have dinner at a restaurant called Santorini Mou, which is not right in the town of Oia, but about ½ mile south in the village of Finikia. The restaurant had a lovely outdoor terrace, and the food was very good – I had fried cod and my husband had the stuffed lamb. But the best thing about Santorini Mou was the music! The owner and his fried started playing the guitar and the bouzouki, and then a visiting Englishman joined in on his guitar and an excellent Italian musician joined in with his soprano saxophone. These men who had never met each other before played the most amazing Greek music together! It was a great evening…
On our last day in Santorini we visited Fira, which is the main town on the Island. It is not nearly as charming as Oia, and it is a lot more crowded with cruise ship passengers. We had a very good lunch at the Cesare Restaurant, and did a little shopping. There were a lot of nice shops, and I splurged by buying myself a beautiful tablecloth embroidered with olive branches. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Santo Winery, which has an incredible view of the volcano caldera. We sampled a number of their excellent wines, and our favorite was Vin Santo, an almost sherry-like dessert wine that is the most famous wine of Santorini. We wished we could have purchased wine to bring home, but the the airline rules on liquids we decided it wasn’t worth it. That evening we drove a short distance from the hotel to Perissa Beach and had dinner right on the beach at the Porto Castello Restaurant. I had grilled octopus for the first time and I fell in love with it!
The next morning we left for the airport for our flight to Athens. We had only one night in Athens, so we stayed at the Sofitel at the Athens airport, which turned out to be a good move – the next day there was a transit strike and we would have had a difficult time getting from the city to the airport.
We took the metro into the city and were able to visit the new Acropolis Museum and the Acropolis itself. The museum is quite new, and it is one of the most amazing museums I have ever visited. They have designed the top floor of the museum to display the “Elgin Marbles” which are now in the British Museum, so I hope that the Brits will finally do the right thing and return them to Greece.
We had the best dinner of our entire trip in Athens, at the Restaurant Strofi. We at on the terrace, which sits right beneath the Acropolis, and we gazed at the Parthenon all through our dinner. We shared the fried feta appetizer - so simple yet so wonderful. Feta wrapped in phyllo, covered in warm honey and toasted sesame seeds-fantastic! My husband had the grilled veal steak and I had the casserole of veal with vegetables and cheese, and they were both great. I hope we get back to Athens some day just so that we can eat at Strofi!
The next morning we were off to Paris…